Eunice Rant

Here's my first Eunice cuff, due to be frogged soon.

The yarn is Stalwart Sock, a fingering weight yarn that knits up a little tighter than Opal and Regia because it's smooth instead of fuzzy. The color is Steelyard Blues.

Before I start listing all the reasons Eunice and I aren't getting along, I have to say that many other knitters are happy, or at least satisfied, with their Eunice results.

The opinions below are just that - my opinions. Let the rant begin.

• The cuff is too big. In the picture the cuff is pulled over two sock blockers, one on top of the other, and it's still too baggy to show the yarn overs.
  
  
• The ribbing starts with 64 stitches and increases to 80 stitches for the cabling pattern. This large increase is unnecessary since there are yarn overs which spread the fabric to compensate for the cables that condense the fabric.
  
  
• Another reason the pretty yarn over patterns in the center of the diamonds don't show is because the diagonal cable leg pulls the fabric up reducing the row gauge so the yarn overs can't spread. It's no better on a human leg.
  
  
• The cable crosses are over seven stitches. A five stitch cable cross is maximum to look nice in a sock pattern, and that's pushing it. There are exceptions to this rule, but this sock isn't one of them.
  
  
• The ribbing and first pattern repeat were knit on 2.5mm needles. Hoping to redeem what my subconscious already knew was a doomed project, I switched to 2.25mm needles for the second repeat with hopes the socks might fit Mom who has wider feet than I do. It hardly made a difference.

Here's my second Eunice cuff, assuming it can still be called Eunice. I have a feeling my modifications are too major for the sock to count in the Sock Innovation KAL, (a Ravelry link), although we are allowed to make changes for fit.

I redrew the chart to change all the three stitch cable legs to two stitches. That brought the cuff stitch count down to 64 from 80 and the wide cable crossing down to 5 from 7.

The ribbing is 56 stitches on 2.5mm needles with an increase of 8 stitches for the cabling pattern.

With 16 stitches less in a round, the fit is good and I plan on finishing this pair of socks for myself.